January 02, 2014
That’s what readers of a Reuters article on complaints from a German business group must be asking themselves. At one point the article told readers:
“Major unions negotiated inflation-busting hikes in pay checks last year after years of wage restraint, although the Statistics Office said last month real wages across Germany were likely to have fallen in 2013.”
It’s not clear what the definition of “inflation-busting” is in this context, but it doesn’t sound like it involved large pay increases if wages did not even keep pace with inflation. Usually, they would be expected to rise somewhat in excess of inflation to reflect productivity growth in Germany’s economy.
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